Previous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of the Text Structure Strategy for improving text recall. The strategy emphasizes the identification of text structure for encoding and recalling information. Traditionally, the efficacy of this strategy has been measured through free recall. The present study examined whether recall and eye-movement…

Newcomers are a special subgroup of the student population designated as English Language Learners (ELLs). The research project described in this article investigates how a teacher integrated language and content in a single subject area, social studies, in a high school newcomer classroom. Three extended lessons were presented to newcomer…

Development of social capital was explored from a scientific evaluation of adult and teen parents (N = 102) who voluntarily participated in a parenting program. Most were unmarried, young, low-income, and Mexican-American. A strengths-based, culturally specific method was utilized to recruit and retain participants. After training, parents had…

The purpose of this article is to briefly describe the design and piloting of a branched, online placement and credit examination that measures receptive as well as productive and creative language abilities in the heritage language of college students entering the Spanish for Heritage Learners Program at the University of Houston, a major…

In the USA there has been widespread growth in Two-Way Immersion (TWI) programmes in all states, including those who have outlawed bilingual education. The model offers language majority students the opportunity to become bilingual alongside their language minority peers. Research has shown TWI programmes to be the most equitable and effective for…

This study compared the effects of 2 supplemental interventions on the beginning reading performance of kindergarteners identified as at risk of reading difficulty. Students (N = 206) were assigned randomly at the classroom level either to an explicit/systematic commercial program or to a school-designed practice intervention taught 30 min per day…

Science education reform and state testing accountability call upon principals to become instructional leaders in science. Specifically, elementary school principals must take an active role in science instruction to effectively improve science education for all students including English Language Learners. As such, the research questioned posed…

This study investigated self-assessed anxious learners who enrolled in online Spanish courses to determine if their anxiety was mediated by the lack of face-to-face (F2F) and other synchronous learning interactions. Participants were enrolled in courses at two postsecondary institutions located in south-central Texas. Narrative analysis was used…

This article describes how a 26-panel altarpiece that once adorned a 15th-century Spanish cathedral inspired faculty members and students at Southern Methodist University to spend a semester dissecting the piece in a multidisciplinary course that featured songs, floats, videos, and painting. The course sprang out of a discussion Mark Roglan,…

Purpose: This study describes the perceptions of brain health among older Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans who reside in colonia areas of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Design and Methods: In 2007, 33 Mexican American older adults (9 men and 24 women) were recruited by "promotoras" (community health workers) from clusters of…

In the current study, we present the findings of an experiment with 108 participants of Spanish as a second language in which we compared the effects of dictogloss (DG) and processing instruction (PI) and compared both sets of effects to a control group. Our findings do not support the results of a recent study, Qin (2008). In that study, DG and…

Theories concerning the development of phonological awareness place special emphasis on lexical and orthographic knowledge. Given the large degree of variability in preschool classrooms that house Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELL), this study controlled for classroom effects by removing classroom means and covariances based on 158…

The purpose of this study was to predict the third grade English reading TAKS scores while considering the same students' native language, Spanish, reading level as assessed by a state-approved reading assessment, the Evaluacion del desarrollo de la lectura (EDL), from the end of the second grade year. In addition, this study was been designed to…

The purpose of the current study is to elaborate on the statistical nature of the linguistic interdependence hypothesis (Cummins, 1979). It is argued that reading skills across the languages of bilingual learners are differentially robust to interdependence, falling along a continuum mediated by the commonalities between Spanish and English.…

This study sought to compare the performance of students in the College Board Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) compared to non-AP students on a number of college outcome measures. Ten individual AP Exams were examined in this study of students in four entering classes (1998-2001) at the University of Texas at Austin. The four main groups of…